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A Bristol, UK startup is looking to give energy drinks like Red Bull the heave-ho when it comes to improving athletic performance with caffeine.

Caffeine has been established as an aid to burning fat while increasing endurance and alertness. But current offerings leave much to be desired. Energy drinks are laden with sugar while synthetic caffeine pills can be unpalatable and – some argue – are absorbed into the bloodstream differently than natural caffeine, according to Simon Hills, cofounder of Truestart coffee.

As the name would suggest, Hills hit upon coffee as a potential alternative to current options. However, when training in Italy for an Ironman triathlon competition, Hills found the coffee would affect him and his wife differently on different days. On most days caffeine would have a positive impact on training – allowing the two to train harder. But on a few other days the athletes – particularly Simon’s wife Helena – would have an adverse reaction including heart palpitations, tremors and headaches.

Simon and Helena began to wonder why the same routine would result in significantly different outcomes and started to research the use of caffeine in athletics. They found out that – although not universally accepted – most studies did link caffeine to fat burning.

But as caffeine was also a diuretic and an addictive substance, high doses and abrupt withdrawal could lead to adverse effects. As a result, recommendations from medical professionals were to limit caffeine intake in support of athletic performance to 3-9 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. This proved harder done than said with coffee as the amount of caffeine present in any given cup of coffee varied enormously based on preparation, beans and roasting method.

Cogwheels started turning and the Hills, who were already involved in entrepreneurial activities, came up with a bit of a cunning plan. Helena called a number of coffee manufacturers to find one who could do what they want, they mocked up a prototype product and put £20 of Facebook advertising behind it to see whether it could sell.

“We didn’t actually have a product at that point,” says Simon. “We had a contract manufacturer who said it could do what we wanted – produce an instant coffee with a controlled amount of caffeine –but nothing else. And then online orders enquiries started rolling in and we thought ‘Oh we better follow through on this then!’”